How many weeks am I really in this sling, and when did the actual pain settle? Still sleeping bolt upright in a chair two weeks on

Two weeks out from my partial after the ladder business and I have questions the discharge sheet does not answer. It said sling for a few weeks and be sensible, which is not a plan I can hang anything on.

Here is where I actually am. I am still sleeping bolt upright in the armchair, exactly like I was before the op when the broken shoulder would not let me lie flat, which feels wrong given they have supposedly fixed the thing. And the pain is a funny one, the sharp break pain has eased but there is a deep ache that flares at night and I lie there wondering if that is normal healing or something going on.

So, plainly. How many weeks am I honestly going to be in this sling, because a few weeks could mean two or it could mean six. When did the pain properly settle for you, and is the night ache the last bit to go? And can I expect to get back into my own bed at some point soon, or is the chair my life for a while yet? I had a partial, a hemiarthroplasty, if that changes the sling answer, I know some of you had the total or the reverse.

Mate the username is not a joke, I slept propped up for a good while after mine too. Everyone pictures lying flat in bed the night they get home and it is just not how it goes for most of us early on. I ended up half sitting in a recliner and rigging pillows into a sort of wedge so the arm was supported and I was not flat. The chair is not a sign anything is wrong, it is just where the shoulder is comfortable for now. It passes. I got back into my own bed properly once I could lie back a bit without the arm complaining, and that crept in over the first few weeks.

Different operation to yours but on the pain question, mine eased at night before it did anything else, the deep ache was the bit that faded first for me. On the sling, I was out of mine sooner than the total folk I have spoken to, I gather a reverse often comes out earlier. A partial might be different again, so that one really is a your surgeon question, but do not assume you are on the longest sling just because your break sounded dramatic.

You have hit two of the things I most wish someone had told me plainly, so let me, one patient to another. I slept in an armchair for weeks before my reverse because the worn shoulder would not let me lie down, and then for a good stretch after it too, so the chair you are describing is deeply familiar and it is not a warning sign.

On the sling, the honest range is roughly 2 to 6 weeks, most commonly around 3 to 4, and reverse replacements often come out sooner while a partial or a total can sit at the longer end, which is why your own surgeon's number beats any figure off here. On the pain, the pattern you are noticing is the normal one: pain generally settles well before movement and strength catch up, and for a lot of us the night ache is among the first things to ease off, exactly as you are starting to feel. Sleeping propped up in a recliner or wedged on pillows for the first weeks is what most people do, and getting back flat in your own bed tends to come in as the shoulder settles, no single date on it. Our account of the shoulder pain that stole my sleep and my recovery told honestly both go through this stretch, chair and all.

The one line I always add because it matters more than any of the rest: normal is a deep ache that is slowly easing. Not normal is spreading redness, a fever, a wound that is weeping, sudden new weakness, or pain that climbs day on day rather than fading. That is a same day call to your surgical team, not a forum post. Everything else you have described sounds like the ordinary early weeks, but let the people who can actually look at the wound be the ones who judge yours.

Coming back to say the chair and I have parted ways, thankfully. Out of the sling now, back in my own bed after propping myself up on a small mountain of pillows for a few weeks like sleptsittingup described, and the night ache has all but gone, which was the thing getting me down most. The arm is stiff and weak still but that is a different thread. Garden is a wilderness and I cannot wait for spring to get out into it. Thanks all, knowing the chair was normal saved me a lot of worrying.